Meet Yoyo

Flow’s Artist Residency program is a creative residency at Flow Brickell supporting artists creating work that brings people together through space, story, and shared experience.

Where dialogue meets the canvas

There’s no real definition for “art.” Maybe that’s the beauty of it. Flow Artist in Residence Yoyo Nasty has dedicated her life’s work to that notion. Her work is a dialogue between subjects, some opposites and some harmonious: cuteness and force, play and nature, movement and energy. The big cats heavily featured in her work are a prime example of the striking style with which she manages to translate the conversation between the previously mentioned concepts onto a canvas. We had the pleasure of exploring why that is and getting to know the face behind the colorful felines. Over to you, Yoyo.

Where can we find your work?

Yoyo Nasty: Instagram: @yoyo_nasty, Website: yoyonasty.com, TikTok: @yoyo_n4sty

What’s the process for ideating such large-scale public art? 

YN: When developing large-scale public work, I always begin with the specific site. Every location has its own rhythm, function, identity and social flow, and the work needs to respond to that rather than sit on top of it. From there, I look at architecture, proportions, sightliness, and distance. Then I start sketching. I love working in this way because public art becomes part of everyday life. That accessibility, and the possibility to subtly shift the atmosphere of a space people return to daily, is what makes large-scale projects so compelling to me.

Media you’d like to experiment with in the future?

YN: I’m currently interested in pushing my work further into architectural and spatial formats. I’ve been working with ceramic tiles and am curious about how painting can become structural, durable, and integrated into space rather than existing only on canvas. I recently had a dream about painting a swimming pool. That would be epic. Imagine literally stepping into a painting that shifts with water, light, and movement.

If you could be an artist in one movement in art history, what would it be and why?

YN: If I could belong to any movement, I would probably go back to prehistoric art, the time of the early Venus figures and cave paintings. Some of the earliest known figurative art objects are small female bodies. We don’t fully know why they were made, but the fact that the female form appears so early in human visual culture feels significant to me. I feel strongly about cave paintings. They weren’t made for the market, but as direct expressions of presence and storytelling about animals, nature, and humans.

What is the symbolism or meaning of the big cats in your work? 

YN: The big cats are the most recurring characters in my work, and they function as emotional bodies. They carry both cuteness and threat at the same time. I’m interested in that tension — something that looks soft but holds power. They can represent instinct, ego, and vulnerability. Through them, I can exaggerate identity, femininity, and force without becoming descriptive.

Feature image courtesy of Yoyo Nasty